In my Tempur-Pedic knock-off bed
400 count soft as down baby blue sheets
warm comforter made from geese I’ll never personally know
snuggled with my shedding wolf-dog
room darkened with richly colored curtains
I rest.
Floating on dreams of alternate identities.
And yet
Knowing that millions of children
sleep with their eyes open
in case of predators of a thousand kinds.
Do I really rest?
Or am I actually treading water on a sea of denial?
Are the dreams I can’t remember ones of being hunted and sold
Coerced and perpetually anxious?
* “Then let them eat brioche” a quote probably mistakenly attributed to Queen Marie Antoinette.
Submission for One Single Impression prompt: floating. Thanks for the prompt to Loch Rob of A Small Look Inside.
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About Beth Patterson
The Virtual Tea House website became 'word-ripe' when, over a cup of jasmine green, I realized that the web has an expanding part to play in the communal aspects of spiritual growth.
With a master's degree in religion, my career spans 30 years in end of life care and child abuse intervention and advocacy.
Here in beautiful Central Oregon, my spiritual homes of the high desert and the mountains are both in proximity. And for good measure, four hours away is Grandmother Ocean and the stunning Oregon Coast.
I'm making decent progress on the goal set by my mother early on: she taught us that the goal of humanity should be to become ever-more eccentric, i.e. more fully human.
Entering the 'forest-dweller' phase of life, I am honored to host the Virtual Tea House for all who wish to explore how our lives are enriched and made new a thousand times each day by the spirituality we embody. Exploring this engagement together is the purpose of the Virtual Tea House.
Welcome! Let's have a cup of virtual tea together and share what brings us joy, what we are being taught by life, how we are leaning into the Big Questions posed to us each day in sometimes 'distressing disguises'.
Follow me on Twitter, if you must
http://twitter.com/MyraB